Night of passage

We’d like to pretend we understood everything that was going on in the House over the past two days… But, well, we didn’t. (Hey, you try explaining parliamentary procedure!)

So, we’re here to show you what we’ve been reading to educate ourselves on just what happened yesterday when the House (well, the House Democrats, really) voted to pass this historic health care reform legislation.

You might remember last week when we posted on the messy road to getting enough votes for this bill to pass the House. They did it, but keep in mind — the bill still has to pass the Senate. From Time:

The second bill passed by the House late Sunday will make adjustments to the legislation [...] using a process known as budget reconciliation. Such changes would be filibuster-proof in the Senate… Even so, it will be an anticlimax to Sunday’s historic House vote, which will send the underlying Senate bill to President Obama’s desk for signature.

But, it is widely believed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has the votes to pass the bill there too. (Yet CBS indicates that it won’t be easy. Is anything ever easy in that town, though?)

Nevertheless, there was some cause for excitement in Washington, especially amongst Democrats. President Obama gave a powerful statement shortly after passage, indicating that the win is not for a party, but for the people. Watch it here. (We highly recommend!)

Support for the bill amongst the public came greatly from Obama’s Organizing for America activists. The Nation indicates the importance of the organization’s calls and letters to Congresspeople in this article, saying:

In the homestretch [...] the numbers and coverage suggest that OFA was able to channel grassroots support for the bill in effective and even confrontational ways.

And before we get to the part with all of the cynicism and stuff, have a look-see at the top newspaper headlines for what many are calling an historic day from the Newseum.

OK — now the not-so uplifting part. Basically, no one knows who came out winning after this battle has been fought and continues to be fought.

The folks at PoliticsDaily ask “Which Party’s Risky Health Care Bet Will Pay Off in November?” Both sides have their talking points, hoping that their efforts will help their cause come mid-term election time in a few months. They write:

Republicans have stuck to their talking points for months on end. (The bill is a government takeover, it will kill freedom, we can’t afford it, Americans don’t want it, “kill the bill” and “start over.”)

Meanwhile, the Democrats are taking, obviously, a different approach:

Democrats prefer to stress protections for people with insurance, coverage for 32 million people who don’t have it, steps to curb rising costs, and nonpartisan projections that their bill will cut the deficit.

The Los Angeles Times ruminates on how the Democrats will turn this win around into something viable for keeping their majority this fall:

President Obama was spared a devastating defeat, and squabbling lawmakers showed they could accomplish something epic and important in the face of unanimous GOP opposition. That should count for something, they hope, at a time when many voters had written off Washington as utterly dysfunctional.

The Press Secretary himself, Robert Gibbs tweeted (he’s nothing if not on the cusp of media!) this article which sums the whole thing up pretty shortly and concise-ly.

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

We hope you get something out of these articles when you try to figure out the importance of health care and where in the world it all goes from here. Have an opinion? Question? Snide remarks? Let us know in the comments section!